


Shifter In Love

by thebeastinsideusall, WinterReadingerDixon67



Category: Captain America (Movies), Captain America - All Media Types, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Avengers - Freeform, Black Widow - Freeform, Bucky Barnes Fluff, Cat Moira, Cat shifter, Dog/Wolf Ally, Dog/Wolf Shifter, Domestic Fluff, Dying species, Everyone Needs A Hug, F/M, Fluff and Humor, Fury is a dick, Hawkeye - Freeform, Miscommunication, Protective Ally, Protective Bucky Barnes, Protective Moira, Protective Steve Rogers, Protective shifter, Shifter Ally, Steve Rogers Feels, Worried Bucky Barnes, Worried Steve Rogers, hybrid genes, shifter Moira, steve rogers fluff, tony stark - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-02-08
Updated: 2018-02-15
Packaged: 2019-03-15 13:26:45
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,267
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13614300
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thebeastinsideusall/pseuds/thebeastinsideusall, https://archiveofourown.org/users/WinterReadingerDixon67/pseuds/WinterReadingerDixon67
Summary: Bucky and Moira found love and happiness. Now it’s Steve's turn. Similar to how Bucky found Moira, Steve rescues an injured dog on his way home from the gym. Moira knows what she is, worried about the safety of her family because this dog isn’t what she seems and is so much more dangerous than her family could imagine from a shifter. Hopefully, Steve makes the right choice in the end.





	1. Ally

**Author's Note:**

  * For [WinterReadingerDixon67](https://archiveofourown.org/users/WinterReadingerDixon67/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Bucky's Cat](https://archiveofourown.org/works/13499374) by [WinterReadingerDixon67](https://archiveofourown.org/users/WinterReadingerDixon67/pseuds/WinterReadingerDixon67). 



> I adored WinterReadingerDixon67’s story about a shifter cat named Moira and how she found love! So I decided to write a sequel about Steve finding his own shifter!

1

The gym is empty, as usual, early hours of the morning his time to let loose and ease some of the near constant tension in his body. Sure, the compound had a great gym with advanced machines. But, Steve enjoyed the old charm in the cracked paint and the smell of old weathered wood floors under beat up and duct tape covered mats.   
   
Freshly showered, a slight ache in his arms and legs, he walked outside to the dimly lit street in the lower Bronx. His mind is far away, too busy to settle on a train of thought so he lets it wander as his body moves down the sidewalk and toward the bus stop.   
   
A sound hits his ears, a rattle of garbage cans and crunch of plastic bags filled. He slows his steps and watches the alley for a moment, thinking a stray cat or even a rat is just digging through the trash. He goes to continue on his way before he hears it again. Eyes narrowing Steve slowly investigates the alleyway. This far and so close to the train tracks, he wonders if it’s just a homeless person trying to find comfort in the garbage.   
   
A whitetail flicks from a bag and he stills. Watching as it tries to lift some and then falls limp back onto the ground. Treading closer, peeling back some other bags, a black and white face of fur meets his. Its teeth are bared out in pain, he can see the strange angle one of its legs is at. Broken.   
   
“Easy...” the teeth slip back slightly into its lips and he can hear the strangled wheeze of its lungs as it tries to whine softly. Rich brown eyes stare back at him before they blink, it’s tongue flicking out to try and heal its leg but there’s no use, it’s clearly broken.   
   
A better look has Steve sighing, it’s entire side looks beaten and bruised, some patches of hair missing and blood trickling gently from a few deep scrapes. Road burns on its exposed flesh.   
   
“Somebody hit you, huh?” He watches as her eyes flick to him and blink slowly. Biting his lip Steve reaches out, and when the dog sniffs his hand, licks at the edge of his fingers. He knows it won’t bite. So, he gently picks her up and cradles the large dog in his arms.   
   
“I’ll get you fixed up, pretty girl.” As he walked back to the tower, because he wasn’t going to take this scared animal onto the bus, he looked at her.   
   
The dog was large, female obviously, and had been hit by a car very recently. Her injuries attested to that perfectly. Knowing she was injured he tried to walk steadily so not to jostle her. But other than the injuries, he looked at her features. The dog was lean, way too skinny for one her size, her claws could use a good trim and the amount of dirt on her suggested long-term survival on her part.   
   
Her coat was white and grey with black mixed in, the colors of a husky but she was much larger than the average dog he’d seen of that breed. Her ears were very sharp and pointed, tufted in silky grey and white fur. She was very beautiful.   
   
Finally, at the tower just before dawn, Steve managed to calm her as he walked into the building. Her eyes had gone wide and she’d struggled but her injured leg kept her from leaping from his grip. “It’s okay it’s okay.” He gently shushed her until he made it to Bruce’s lab.   
   
Luckily the man in question is already awake, surprise on his face as he sees Steve come in quickly with a mass of paws and fur in his arms. “She’s hurt, can you help her?” Bruce doesn’t even question it, instead clearing a lab table and getting to work.   
   
Once her leg is splinted and wrapped, the lacerations cleaned and covered does Brice finally ask. “Why not drop her off at an all-night vet?”  
   
Steve only shrugs and reaches out to pet the dog, she’s drugged up but is slowly coming out of it, her tongue lightly lapping at his fingertips. He doesn’t say anything else and instead carries her up to his room without running into anyone thankfully. He was tired.   
   
Gently laying the dog on his bed Steve crouched down to her eye level as more of the drugs wore off. She looked groggy but the pained look in her eyes was gone for the moment. “I’m Steve, pretty girl.”   
   
Her vision turns toward him and she blinks slowly at him. Her nose gently probing at his cheek. Smiling Steve rubbed her head and cringed. She was filthy. “How about a bath? And maybe we can figure out a name for you huh?”   
   
At the word bath, he thought he’d frighten the animal but instead, her tail started wagging furiously and she even whines at him. Chuckling he again picked her up and took her to the big bathroom attached to his apartment. Mindful of her broken leg and healing wounds, the layers of mud and grime came off of her pelt.  
   
“Huh, you’re not even grey at all, are you?” And she wasn’t, under all that gunk she is pristinely white with black markings along her face, shoulders, and back. Her tail a mixture as it fluffs up more and more. She’s fluffy all around actually.    
   
Once clean and dry he could tell she was tired by the droop in her eyes and the way she could barely stand on her three legs. “Bedtime.” He was going to put her on the floor but decided against it and set her back on his bed. Her body snuggled up to his back as he lay there and her soft breathing pulled him to sleep.   
   
Once Steve got a couple more hours of sleep, a soft wet feeling wakes him up. The fluffy husky looking dog is gently licking at his shoulder. “I’m up... I’m up.” He can feel his bed tremble some as she wiggles and barks at him excitedly.   
   
Steve stills, hoping nobody heard that. He didn’t really want to answer any questions. But he knew he’d have to introduce her to the team, tell off Fury because by gosh he was keeping her and warn Bucky and Moira. Scratching gently under her chin Steve felt a calm wash over him at the intensity of her warm honey brown gaze.   
   
“I still gotta name you pretty girl.” Her tail swished gently against the blankets as he sat up, his gaze checking over her wounds which looked so much better now that they were cleaned.   
   
Scratching his chin, knowing he should shave soon, Steve thought over possible names. “Snow?” She perked an ear up and her tail stopped moving. “Okay, not that.” “Blizzard?” “Hannah?” “Sam?” “Princess?” That one got a growl in response. “What about...Ally? Since I found you in an alley?” A soft bark and her tail went crazy. “Okay Ally, let's go get some breakfast.”   
   
He was going to carry her because of her leg, but she hobbled on three fairly well so he just went slowly so she didn’t have to hurry. Her claws clicked gently on the smooth floor, her height gave her the advantage of Steve’s relaxed hand gently petting her head as she walked beside him.   
   
The kitchen noises stopped once he entered the main room. Natasha froze, staring unblinkingly. Clint dropped his piece of toast, Bruce rolled his eyes and raised an eyebrow. Bucky, with Moira in her cat form on his shoulder, stopped their track toward the couch with a cup of coffee in his hands.   
   
“Seriously?” Tony groaned, face in his hands. Steve only shrugged, not giving an explanation and Ally walked by his side warily, her shoulder brushing his legs as of pushing him back until she assessed the new people around him. Protecting him.   
   
“It’s okay Ally, they’re friends.” Her nose sniffles at everyone’s hands and while her ears were laid back in nervousness, she didn’t snap or growl, tail wagging slightly on the floor.   
   
Bucky came up with Moira, the cat shifter instantly putting her ears back and scrambling to hide behind Bucky’s hair. “Hey, Moira... it’s okay.” Bucky’s stood back up but in doing so Moira lept up and caught part of her ceiling gym, hiding up there while watching the dog intensely.   
   
“Jeeze, I didn’t think about her being afraid of dogs...” Steve looked like he was going to be sick, he didn’t want to get rid of Ally. But if Moira was terrified…  
   
“Wait, Look.” Ally has hobbled over to the end of the play gym closest to the floor and sat down. Ears perked and eyes watching. Several moments passed before Moria started closer, and closer until she was a few feet from the fluffy dog of Steve’s.   
   
Finally, Ally laid down on the floor, patiently waiting out the cat. Once again everyone waited with baited breath as Moira reached out her leg, as far as it would stretch, and bopped Ally’s ear. The dog only wagged her tail slightly. Moira stood and batted once more before walking back to Bucky, pawing his leg to be picked up and be put back on his shoulders.   
   
Everyone sighed in relief, nervous for a moment the dog might attack their shifter friend. Moira was very much family now and they didn’t want her hurt. Ally stood and went back to Steve, sitting loyally at his side, her eyes never leaving Moira’s.   
   
“Guys, this is Ally.” Steve patted her fluffy white and black colored head, her honey eyes watching everyone with an intensity that seemed familiar.   
   
Later, Steve is sitting on the couch and Ally curled up beside him. Her head in his lap as he softly pets her between the ears. He slips gently into a nap while Moira steps from the hallway by herself. Eyeing the dog on the couch Moira steps closer and crouch’s low, her tail flicking back and forth.   
   
“Do you mean my family harm?” Her voice is soft and she glances at Steve to make sure he doesn’t wake with her voice.   
   
Ally looked up from Steve’s lap, her head moving left and right in a shake. Moira nodded then stood, her tail slipping about her upper leg as she walked away and back toward her and Bucky’s room, satisfied with the answer she got. The nervous prickle in her spine wasn’t entirely gone. Her instincts not happy that a canine was in her territory.   
   
“Hey, what’s wrong?” Bucky asked when she came back, she had been hoping he’d be in the training room still, but he wasn’t and he knew her face so well.   
   
Moira wasn’t sure if she should say it, she knew the dog with Steve was much more than what they seemed. Another shifter, a much bigger and much more dangerous one. If she outed the shifter, she might turn angry and attack her family. If she didn’t, her family might be angry with her for keeping this information secret.   
   
Her family was far more important though, so she would tell Bucky. “She’s a shifter...” Bucky’s eyes narrowed until realization dawned on his face.   
   
“Is Steve safe?” Moira shrugged a bit.   
   
“I don’t sense danger from her, and she is injured. But she’s a big one...” she chewed on her lip, tail flicking and ears laid back.   
   
“A big one?” Moira nods.   
   
“Shifters are classified by size and size is power in our community. I’m small, one of the smallest shifters are cats. But she’s a canine, and she’s huge for a shifter.”  
   
“So, she’s bigger than normal?” Moira nods again and Bucky scrubs a hand over his face.   
   
“Bucky, I think she’s a lycanthrope.” At his blank stare, she started to pace some across from him. “Lycans are the biggest of shifters, they’re the most dangerous and the most powerful. I was told they were all gone in the states and the few left were toward Canada and Alaska. But I can feel it...”  
   
“You’re sure Steve’s alright?”   
   
“If she wanted to, injured or not, she would have tried to rip out his throat on sight.” Moira stopped her pacing. “I think she’s looking for a bond mate.”  
   
Bucky raised an eyebrow at that. “Do we tell him?” Moira shrugged.   
   
“It’s up to you, though... give them a day or two? If he knows too soon, before she can even start to assess how he treats her, we could potentially force her to turn on Steve.” Moira looked out the windows deep in thought, and with Bucky knowing her so well, he knew what she was thinking.  
   
“Don’t worry Moira, we won’t do that to her or Steve. We’ll give her the time she needs and who knows, maybe it’s a good thing you’re here too. I bet she hasn’t seen a shifter so kind and loving as you in a while.” Moira let Bucky pull her to him, settling against him as they both watched the clouds roll by.


	2. Chapter 2

2  
   
Fury meets his match  
—-  
Several days later Steve finds that everyone is as taken with Ally as they were with Moira when she first came to the tower. But Ally is just a dog.   
   
Clint sneaks her pieces of bacon in the morning even though Steve was adamant on that first day that she was not getting people food. Worried about it making her sick.   
   
Natasha finds the large animal calming when she is in the lounge enjoying the sunlight. Ally will lay there and even lay her head against Nat’s knee if the assassin is close enough.   
   
Tony is hard convinced her arm is never going to heal and has started drawing out schematics of bionic arms, and super suits. Everyone hopes he’s joking...   
   
“Captain Rogers, I regret to say that Fury is insisting on entrance to the tower.” Steve’s glances up from Ally, a rope toy securing hanging from one side of her mouth. A soft growl in her throat at the disembodied voice.   
   
Steve groans softly, scrubbing a hand over his face. He knew Fury would find out somehow, probably from Coulson’s meeting with him yesterday. Ally had trotted into the conference room on her three legs and dropped a tennis ball in Steve’s lap, completely ignoring the other man.   
   
“Fine, but just the conference floors J, don’t allow him past that.” Tony stood, following Steve as he went down the hall. “Cap should probably leave her up here.”   
   
Steve glanced down, Ally was glued to his side, pointed ears up straight and eyes questioning. He didn’t want Fury to say anything to her, the man’s angry voice alone could possibly make her agitated. She’s a big dog, and Fury is quick on the draw with his gun.   
   
“You stay here girl, stay.” She dropped to her haunches, head tilted to the side in confusion when she didn’t get a treat and Steve started to move toward the elevator. He turned around once inside the doors and said it once more, “stay.”  
   
The doors closed and Ally whines heavily, her nose sniffing at the doors for a long moment, claws at the seam to hopefully open it. Her distress clear as she started to bark at the elevator. Her gaze looked around, finding the sign she needed, she leaned back on her hind legs and used her healthy leg to pull on the handle for the stair door. Her tail was vanishing through the doorway before Clint could blink and comprehend what he’d just witnessed. Instead, he darts toward the stair door himself and didn’t see her.   
   
“Crap! Jarvis! Warn Steve his dogs loose!” Clint went drop the stairs as fast as he could, he was close but every time he went to grab her collar, she would dart out of the way. She’s fast on three legs!  
   
“Captain, sorry to interrupt but Ally has found the stairs and is loose.” Steve paled, Fury raised an angry eyebrow and Coulson tried to hide a smile.    
   
He didn’t even give the two men a word, just bolted from the room and went straight for the staircase by the elevator. Shouting out her name and hoping he’d find her, she hasn’t gone beyond the living floors yet. Panic set in when he heard her whine behind one of the floor doors.   
   
“Ally!” He opened the door and she kept at his hips, whimpering softly and licking furiously at his hands. “What are you doing girl?!” As he crouched down he found himself on his butt as she wriggled and whimpered on top of him.   
   
“What in the hell is that?” Fury’s voice sounded a floor above them and Steve tensed. Ally felt his demeanor change, one look at the man with an eyepatch had her standing more protectively over Steve. Ignoring her injured leg as she set it on the floor to hover her entire body over the super soldier.   
   
“Easy girl...” but she paid Steve no mind and instead bared her white teeth as Fury descended the stairs. Ears laid back, tail fluffed up, in the moment as Steve lay under her, Ally wasn’t the fluffy adorable dog he’d met. She was now a furious canine, fangs bared and hackles raised.   
   
“No, Barnes keeps the shifter because that’s what she is, and here is where she can’t cause trouble. Rogers get rid of that dog.” Ally snarled so deep in her throat Steve froze at the sound of it.   
   
Ally kept up her position above Steve, making sure the one-eyed man stayed his distance. She didn’t like his gaze, she didn’t like his scent and she didn’t like his tone. This was her human and she was making damn sure this man knew it.   
   
Fury raised an eyebrow. “Get rid of it.”  
   
“Her name is Ally, and no I won’t.” Steve finally went to stand up, Ally changed her pose to push her shoulders against his knees, her leg was hurting badly but she kept it on the ground and snapped her teeth at the man.   
   
“Leave Fury.” And he did with a flutter of dark leather. Steve stood for a few more minutes until Fury was no longer even on the stairs. His hand reaches to pet behind her ears and Ally’s entire demeanor changed from furious to worried. Her hair laid back down and her ears perked up, tails lightly swishing as she whines at him.   
   
Clint watched wide-eyed at how easily the big dog had shifted from worried to angry back to worried when it came to Steve. He glanced up, Bucky and Moira stood side by side on the stairwell watching, maybe they had seen everything like he had. Moira whispered something to Bucky and he nodded.   
   
“Hey Steve, come on up to our room in a bit yeah?” Eyes narrowed, Steve nodded and watched as the two went back upstairs. His attention back to Ally as she continued to lick at his cheeks.   
   
“I’m alright girl.”  Ally followed him back to the elevator, her shoulders refusing to leave their place against his hip. A protective stance as she hobbled on her three legs, almost putting the injured on down.   
   
He wondered what Bucky could want to talk about and was co fused by Moira’s quietness the past few days. The usually bubbly and hyperactive cat shifter had been a bit reclusive as well as Bucky. Both seemed to be deep in thought and on constant watch, but Steve had sensed no danger or a confrontation, other than Fury.   
   
Ally suddenly stopped her walk, her absence at his hip made Steve pause and glance down at her. She was standing, ears perked at him and tail low to the ground. Her front paws and leg wiggling slightly and she started to yip softly one two three. One two three. He crouched low to the ground and sank his fingers into her thick coat at her neck.   
   
“What’s the matter, pretty girl.” Her honey colored eyes blinked, a little wetness in the corner of her eye. But she’s an animal and can’t speak and he’s human and doesn’t understand. Instead, she noses into his neck, hugging him almost.   
   
Steve chuckles softly, “I love you too Ally.” He doesn’t notice her still as his words. “Come on girl, Buck wants to see us.” She walks by his side and down the hall, her collar feeling lighter than ever on her neck.   
   
—  
   
Bucky waited with Moira curled into his side. He’d witnessed Ally go straight into a protective stance overtop of Steve, nearly attacking Fury. Just like Moira had when Fury had ordered he get rid of the fluffy black cat. Of course, there’s the small act of a cat hissing at you, and the snapping teeth of a dog with sharp fangs snarling at you.   
   
Moira played with his hair gently and his palm came up to trace blindly over the tattoo on the back of her neck. The bond he shared with Moira was, indescribable. It lifted any doubts he had about his past, it calmed his rage and it eased his heart. Steve needed that too. And hopefully, he would get it with Ally.   
   
A fuzzy tail caught his wrist and Bucky twirled the appendage through his metal fingers gently. Smiling as Moira started up a soft purr at his neck and she sort of went limp against him, cuddling up tight to him. “I love you.” He whispered into her dark hair and got a soft whispered reply.   
   
Knocking at the door made them pause and Moira sat up more on Bucky’s lap as he asked Steve to come in. Ally trotted into the door but paused, her nose flaring and she stayed there with her ears pinned back a bit. This wasn’t her territory, it scented heavily of Bucky and Moira. She didn’t know if they would turn on her for going into their den.   
 

 

Moira flicked her tail in thought. “It’s okay Ally.” She has talked with the dog on a few seldom occasions. Ones where nobody was around or everyone was asleep. Just simple questions, Moira could understand the canine in tone and sounds where no one else could. But now Ally needed the reassurance that her human was safe and that the feline wouldn’t try to shove her out of her new territory.   
   
Ally kept her stance against Steve’s hip, a short soft bark. Moira’s nods to the dog, “It’s alright.” Suddenly Ally sits where she was standing and lowers her nose to the floor, her posture the opposite of the pride she usually held in her figure.   
   
“What’s going on Buck?” Steve sits on the couch across from Bucky and Moira, confusion marring his features at Ally’s posture, Moira’s words and Bucky’s slumped shoulders.   
   
“We have... information on Ally.” Bucky starts not sure how to approach the subject.   
   
“Information?” Steve glanced at his dog, finding she was now turned and looking out the glass floor to ceiling windows, her black ears flattened to her head.   
   
“Does she... have an owner already?” Steve’s entire demeanor shifted to sadness but Bucky only smiled softly and shook his head. Stilling Steve’s thoughts about having to give up his new companion.   
   
“No, no, she uh, she doesn’t have an owner...Jesus, I can’t do it, Moira you tell him.” The ears on her head flicked downwards and Moira chewed on her lip.   
   
“Steve, Ally is more then she seems...” she waited while Steve glanced at Ally, her one ear perked to the humans while her gaze still stared at the window. Moira looked at Ally herself, waiting for permission to continue when Ally gave a quick nod, Moira continued.  
   
“Ally is a shifter, Steve.”  
   
Steve sat for a moment before turning his attention to Ally. Her ears were back, nearly plastered to her skull as her head was low, shoulders hunched and her tail was a still as it had ever been. She wouldn’t meet his gaze and refused to flicker her eyes away from the window.   
   
He stands and slowly knelt down beside the black and white dog. She tenses but stays still, her eyes closing and her head hangs lower. “Pretty girl.... is that true?” He asks her to prove it, not Bucky or Moira. He wants to know, has to know.   
   
Her eyes open and she turns her long-nosed face to him and she nods, not a little jerk or a dog like mannerism, an honest to god nod. Why didn’t she just... say something?  
   
“Ally, may I tell him what you are? Why you can’t shift?” Moira was standing near them, hands clasped politely in front of her as her tail flicked at her ankles.   
   
The dog, shifter, nodded once more. Lowering herself to the floor to let her injured leg rest. Steve’s hand wound itself in her thick scruff and her nose moved, tongue flicked out to touch his wrist.   
   
“Ally is a shifter, to be precise, she’s a Lycanthrope...”  
   
“A werewolf??” Ally snorted out a soft growl and Steve widened his eyes as he saw her roll hers.  
   
“No, Steve. A Lycanthrope. They have the most command over their shift, can half shift to protect their human forms with claws and fangs or they can revert to this form in a matter of seconds.” Ally tapped her paw to the ground. “And, she can’t shift right now because of her injuries, if she tried she could permanently damage her arm or worse, unable to shift again without causing even more lasting damage.” Ally nods to Moira.  
   
He finally crossed his legs and sat beside Ally, staring at her in wonder, confusion and a bit of apprehension. Ally was not a dog, Ally was sentient and a shifter and he’d been treating her like an animal...the collar on her neck made Steve feel sick.   
   
“Oh god....” he instantly goes to reach for the collar feeling he’s made a terrible offense to her with the prices of nylon around her neck. Ally jumps up, yelping at the pressure on her paw but she slides back, jaw down to protect the bright blue and pink collar.   
   
“Steve, no! Don’t take it from her!” Moira kneels beside Ally, a deep purr erupting from her throat to calm the nervous canine. “It’s okay Ally he’s just confused.”  
   
“Steve, whether you knew it then you’re going to know now. She chose you, like I chose Bucky. When you offered her, her choice of collar? And when she chose her own? That was her way of showing that she chose you, yes that might’ve been unclear to understand, but that collar means everything to her.” Moira spoke softly but with conviction, strength. Ally’s golden eyes wide and he could see, the wetness at the corner. Tears. Guilt heavy in his heart. “Steve, she chose you, otherwise that collar would have been the end of it, and you would be without a hand.”  
   
“I don’t understand though, Bucky said that you told him about ways he could mark you.”  
   
Moira nodded, “Yes I did, but I was also in this form. When I could actually tell him in some way, I just trusted him to pick what he felt was right. Just like Ally trusted you when you offered choices for her. You gave her choices, she would’ve shown you if she was against the idea of the collar at the start. Hence the no hand scenario.”  
   
Bucky came to his friend’s side and clasped a hand on Steve’s shoulder. “Look Punk, it’s a lot to take in, I get it. But don’t treat her any different than you have. Right now, she can’t talk, she can’t shift until she’s healed, but what she can do is be there, by your side.”  
   
Ally looked so dejected there besides Moira because he’d tried to take it off of her. “That right pretty girl?” Ally nods and moves to her feet, hobbling over until she’s standing in front of the super soldier. Her nose twitching as Steve reaches out and his fingers sank into the thick hair about her neck and shoulders. The collar brushing his fingertips and Ally tenses but Steve doesn’t go to remove it. Her tails taps a few times on the floor.   
   
He takes a moment to breath in her scent and holds her to his chest for a moment. “Okay, okay...lets...backup a little bit. Go over the Lucan thing again.” Steve resigns to sitting on the floor, Ally half draping across his lap as Moira goes into further explanation.   
   
“I’m a fairly small shifter, cats aren’t that much of a danger to anyone. But you can tell, she’s very large for even a dog.” Steve had to agree with that, Ally is double the size of a husky and much more muscles than a pit bull. “They’re quite dangerous and,” Moira pauses and flicks her tail embarrassed, “it’s why I reacted the way I did. Normally another shifter would cause me excitement but, Ally is huge and a canine. I had to make sure she wouldn’t attack me, or any of you.” Ally snuffed and narrowed her gaze as Moira. “I know that now Ally but I had to be sure. It’s been awhile since I met a larger shifter, my instinct was to protect myself.” Ally’s gaze softened in understanding.  
   
“Think of as um, the super soldier of our kind, I guess.” Moira ribbed the back of her neck, settling into Bucky’s lap on the couch.   
   
“Thanks for telling me Buck, Moira.” He glanced down at Ally’s honey eyes, looking up at him almost pleadingly. He just wasn’t sure why. 

“I think you two should talk some, but until she can shift back, try to keep it simple.” Moira gave her last bit of advice. 

Steve stood and with ally at his side he went to leave, Bucky cane up and gripped Steve’s upper arm. “Don’t treat her differently Steve...” Bucky spoke to his best friend. “Just go with it Steve, you won’t regret it.” 

Steve had a lot to think about, but ally’s presence by his side made it not seem such a big deal for the moment. Inside his own apartment Steve slumps onto the couch, ally leaping up to lay beside him, her head on his thigh. His fingers card through her fur, stopping at the collar. He smiles softly. 

“I can’t believe you wanted the neon one.” Ally rolls her eyes, snuffs out a sneeze from her nose and raises an eyebrow. Steve knew her small mannerisms for the short time of her being there. But without her ability to speak, he didn’t know her. 

But she liked this collar, she liked Steve. She trusted Steve. And her trust was a thin string of silk, frayed and fragile. He hadn’t done a single thing to snap that string. She hoped he wouldn’t. 

“I guess, I sort of knew something was different with you.” Worry crossed her features. “It doesn’t change how I feel about you.” He had completely forgotten what he’d said to her before entering Bucky’s rooms. But she hadn’t. 

Her nose reached up and she nipped, very gently, with her fangs at the underside of his chin. He may not know the meaning behind it, but he would at some point. For now she nipped and licked, showing affection the only way she could. Soon her leg would heal and she’ll speak to her chosen.

**Author's Note:**

> Comments are Love
> 
> Comments are Life


End file.
